According to the Boston Globe, the Pentagon quietly has been pursuing a plan to increase the number of noncitizens it recruits into the armed forces to counter a weak recruiting market and to support a plan to expand the land forces. The obvious lure for foreigners is to gain US citizenship. The Globe reports that “Pentagon officials” are working with Congress on the issue.
It'll take up to 18 months for Lockheed Martin to deliver the 100 or so F-35s that went directly from production line to storage, awaiting the completion of Tech Refresh 3 testing. Customers haven't complained about the order in which the backlog is being delivered.